BOOK

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Autograph Letter Signed to Wilson.

Author: 
Beatrice Harraden (1864-1936), novelist and suffragette [John Gideon Wilson (1876-1963), bookseller, of J. & E. Bumpus Ltd]
Publication details: 
18 March [no year]; 'c/o The Halcyon Club | 13. Cork St. | W. [London]'
£35.00

12mo: 2 pp. Twenty-eight lines of closely-written text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. She has received his letter and the cheque for £7 10s 'for the Vidal', about the sale of which and the price she is 'very much pleased'. 'You do not mention the commission [...] I hope for good luck with Hall's Stradivari later.' His 'kindness [...] is greatly appreciated'. 'I hope to come in one day when the spring is really here.

Shakespeare's comedies, histories, & tragedies a supplement to the reproduction in facsimile of the first folio edition (1623) from the Chatsworth copy [...] containing a census of extant copies with some account of their history and condition.

Author: 
Sir Sidney Lee
Publication details: 
Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1902.
£150.00

Folio. Pagination: [1-7] 8-45 [1-3] = 24 leaves. Unbound. Stitched as issued, unopened and uncut. Printed with the Fell types on good but browning paper. In good condition, but with spotting to recto of first leaf, which has a small closed hole at head and some tiny closed tears at foot, and with two unobtrusive staple-stains to verso of last leaf. Creased and dog-eared at foot. The importance of this item in the history of Shakespeare studies has been emphasized recently by A. J. West (The Shakespeare First Folio. The History of the Book. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press, 2001).

A Country Calendar 1978

Author: 
Lynton Lamb.
Publication details: 
Malvern 1977
£50.00

Soft-covered, c.12 x 17", sl. soiling, fold marks in one corner, o/w very good. INSCRIBED: "With best wishes for Xmas & the New Year from Biddy Lamb".

List of publications 'At the Sign of Flying Fame' in the form of a handbill.

Author: 
[CLAUD LOVAT FRASER; RALPH HODGSON; HOLBROOK JACKSON]
Publication details: 
PRINTED BY A. T. STEVENS, OF 55 ST. MARTIN'S LANE, IN THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER, FOR R.H., L.F., AND H.J., AT THEH SIGN OF FLYING FAME, 45 ROLAND GARDENS, | LONDON, S.W., WHERE COPIES MAY BE HAD. | 1913.'
£20.00

Printed on pink [faded from red?] unwatermarked paper, with cream backing. Dimensions of paper roughly fourteen centimeters by thirty-three centimeters. A frail ephemeral item. Lightly creased, and with further creasing and closed tears at head and foot, and minor loss at head. Faded, and with further fading at head. Headed 'At the Sign of Flying Fame.' Illustration by Lovat Fraser of mounted seventeenth-century man blowing bugle over cityscape. 'LIST OF PUBLICATIONS' includes details of six broadsides and four chap-books.

New Bottles for New Wine: Ideology and Scientific Knowledge

Author: 
Julian Huxley
Publication details: 
Royal Anthropological Institute (1950)
£28.00

18pp, 4to, green wraps, sunned around fold mark, mainly good+. INSCRIBED by the author ("JSH") to Graham Hutton who has annotated the text with comment and lines in pencil.

A Description of a Most Valuable Collection of Autograph Letters and Historical Papers [...] American Revolutionary Broadsides, Scarce Washington Portraits, American Views, Miscellaneous Portraits, Rare Washington Pitchers, and Historical Chinaware.

Author: 
Davis & Harvey, auctioneers [Stanislaus Vincent Henkels, compiler of catalogue and auctioneer] [GEORGE WASHINGTON; WASHINGTONIANA]
Publication details: 
[Catalogue No. 817.] To be sold on Monday, December 5th, 1898; at the book auction rooms of Davis & Harvey, 1112 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pa. [E. J. Bicking, Printer, Tenth and Market Sts, Philadelphia.]
£50.00

Octavo, 111 pages. 1098 lots. Six plates. Stitched and unbound. Addendum slip. In remains of original green printer wraps, with both covers loose and heavily chipped. On aged paper, with chipping to a handful of leaves. Partially unopened, and with damage to the last two leaves through clumsy attempt at opening. A scarce item valuable for the Washingtoniana that it contains. A frail survival that would benefit from sympathetic binding. No copy on COPAC.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'My dear Smith'.

Author: 
Alexander Innes Shand (1832-1907), Scottish journalist, novelist and military historian
Publication details: 
Oakdale - Eden Bridge - Kent - 2 July' [no year]; on cancelled letterhead of the Windham Club, St James's Square, S.W.
£35.00

12mo bifolium: 3 pp. Good, though lightly creased. Tipped in on the blank verso of the second leaf, to a green paper folder on which an eight-line biographical entry of Shand has been laid down. He has left the packet containing the letters which Mrs Smith 'values' so 'highly' at the Reform Club, not wishing, in case it has changed, to send them to Smith's 'address in the Blue Book'. As he cannot 'make a decent excuse' for the delay in returning them, he throws himself on Smith's mercy.

Autograph Letter Signed ('W Maccall') [to the publishers W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.].

Author: 
William Maccall (1812-1888), Scottish writer and lecturer [W. S. Sonnenschein & Co.]
Publication details: 
14 November 1882; Stanhope Cottages, Bexley Heath.
£85.00

4to, 1 page and 12mo, 2 pp (single 4to leaf, folded as to give two 12mo pp on one side). Thirty-seven lines of text. Maccall is 'willing to accept any proposal which is reasonable and just' concerning his 'Christian Legends' (published by Sonnenschein in 1882), and also 'to make sacrifices for the sake of obliging [...] As the one manuscript is about twice the length of the other - I speak from memory, - it might honestly claim better remuneration'.

Two Autograph Letters Signed (both 'Alec Maclehose') from Alexander MacLehose; and one Autograph Letter Signed ('James MacLehose'); all three to John Gideon Wilson.

Author: 
Alexander MacLehose & Co.; James MacLehose; publishers [John Gideon Wilson (1876-1963), Scottish bookseller, proprietor of the London firm of Bumpus]
Publication details: 
Alexander MacLehose: 10 August 1931 and 23 June 1932; both on letterhead of Alexander MacLehose & Co., 58 Bloomsbury Street, London, W.C.1. James MacLehose: 20 November 1931; on letterhead of Saint Johns House, 30 Smith Square, Westminster, S.W.1.
£100.00

Alexander MacLehose: Letter One: 4to, 1 p. Good, on slightly aged and lightly creased paper. He is sending a copy of his catalogue, 'which has reached me from the printers to-day'. He has 'sent a copy also to the firm'. Would like Wilson's 'advice as to whether "Memories of the Months" should have a paper jacket. The binders have sent me a nice cellophane cover, which shows the rather handsome binding. Would there be any objection, from a selling point of view, to a cellophane cover in place of the ordinary paper jacket?' Letter Two: 12mo, 2 pp.

Autograph Letter Signed ('A. Strahan') to Mrs Matheson.

Author: 
Alexander Stewart Strahan (1833-1918), Scottish publisher
Publication details: 
6 April 1861 ('Saturday Night'); Edinburgh.
£66.00

8vo: 2 pp. Bifolium. Good, on lightly creased and discoloured paper, with strip roughly 1.5 x 6 cm missing from top outside corner of first leaf, resulting in loss of around four words. 'Dr. Macleod' [Norman Macleod, 1812-1872, DNB] has just returned 'the M.SS which you were kind enough to submit to me | He likes Miss Robertson's papers, and would be glad to give her a place in "Good Words" if she wrote anything suitable.' Macleod 'is to think over a subject and suggest it the first time he is in town'.

Autograph Letter Signed to the naturalist Rev. Francis Orpen Morris (1810-1893).

Author: 
James Blackwood, Scottish publisher
Publication details: 
17 October 1857, on his business letterhead, 8 Lovell's Court, Paternoster Row.
£56.00

8vo: 2 pp. The 'idea is worth Consideration', but Blackwood 'can hardly see how any large sale cann be depended upon, so as to repay the expense of printing advertising &c.' Asks that Morris send him 'one sermon, to indicate style, length & to estimate cost'. Asks what size of paper should be used. Notices that Morris's works are 'principally on natural history'. Likes the idea of 'the <?> natural history', and 'will take an early opportunity of looking at it'. This notable London publisher is a surprising omission from BBTI.

Autograph Letter Signed ('David S. Meldrum') to unnamed female correspondent.

Author: 
David Storrar Meldrum (1864-1940), novelist and partner in the publishing house of Blackwood's
Publication details: 
4 September 1897; on company letterhead '37, Paternoster Row, London, E.C.'
£56.00

8vo: 3 pp. On grubby, lightly creased paper. The recipient has made Meldrum a 'pretty present' of her edition of Burns (COPAC provides no clue as to her identity). He finds the volumes 'very dainty', and will read her notes 'with interest'. He has already read her 'Introductions' with 'great pleasure'. He comments on her assessment of a couple of poems and finds her 'standpoint' on 'the man & the poet' 'capital'. 'But you must allow me one criticism: you read into the poems a political significance which I'm sure wasn't there.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Geo. Combe') to Messrs Bell & Bain, Printers, Exchange Court [Glasgow].

Author: 
George Combe (1788-1858), Scottish phrenologist
Publication details: 
20 April 1836; 81 Bath Street [Glasgow].
£95.00

8vo, 1 p. Addressed by Combe on the reverse, to which his monogram seal in red wax (with his motto 'RES NON VERBA QUAESO') still adheres. In poor condition, on discoloured paper, with damage to a few words of text above the signature caused by clumsy removal from the mount, a part of which still adheres to the reverse. Repaired with archival tape. The letter presumably concerns 'Additional testimonials on behalf of George Combe, as a candidate for the chair of logic in the University of Edinburgh' (1836). It reads 'Gentlemen | Be so good as correct these proofs, make them up in 8vo.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Balcarres') to 'Everard'.

Author: 
David Lindsay (1871-1940), politician and future 27th Earl of Crawford [Lindsay Library; Bibliotheca Lindesiana]
Publication details: 
16 October 1895; Haigh [Lancashire].
£65.00

12mo: 3 pp. Bifoilum. Thirty-six lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper, with several pin holes, light spotting, and a 1 cm closed tear along a fold. A lighthearted epistle, beginning 'Dear Everard, Dear Everard | The Cistercians make an awful mistake in giving free meals. My Charity-organisation Society temperament rises in wrath: if they wd only apply the labour test for an hour or less - but free meals! I have watched the moral ravages of free meals and feel more strongly abt that kind of thing than about Home rule or Mediaeval Brases.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed male clerical correspondent [the Rev. Dr Thomas Frognall Dibdin].

Author: 
William Douglas of Edinburgh [ Thomas Frognall Dibdin ]
Publication details: 
5 S. College St. [Edinburgh] | August 5 / 37' [1837].
£300.00

Two pages, 8vo. In good condition despite paper discoloration and smudging of text by author. Traces of stub adhering to one edge. An interesting letter from one of the engraver's to Dibdin's Northern Tour (1838), and important for the light it sheds on the book's production. Douglas greets Dibdin as 'Rev Sir'. He is sending his draft and has 'revised all the plates and sent them to Mr Johnstone to be proved'. Johnstone will send them on with the drawings. He has seen 'Mr.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J L Dayrell') to Messrs Brett & Clements.

Author: 
John Langham Dayrell [J. L. Dayrell] (1756-1832), Vicar of Stowe and Rector of Lillingston Dayrell, Buckinghamshire
Publication details: 
24 September 1812; Leamington Spa.
£25.00

4to, 1 p. Bifolium. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and stained paper. Addressed, with three postmarks, on the reverse of the second leaf, to 'Messrs. Brett & Clements Stat[ione]rs - | near the New Church | Strand | London'. Asks for his 'Sunday's Paper' to be sent to him 'at Buckingham as usual', as he is leaving Leamington the following Saturday. 'You have not explained to me the difference of the Charge of the Newspapers from the last years to the one I have lately paid for, by doing of which you will oblige | Sir, | Yr humble Servant'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Holbrook Jackson') to 'Mr. Bennett'.

Author: 
George Holbrook Jackson (1874-1948), author, wroter on books, etc
Publication details: 
10 August 1912; on letterhead of the Crossways, Langley Park, Mill Hill, N.W.
£45.00

8vo: 1 p. Good on lightly-aged paper. Small closed tear at head, and traces of glue and grey paper from previous mounting on reverse. He is sorry to say that he will be 'away at the seaside' when Bennett is in London. If he is 'in town again shortly' Jackson will be glad to meet him. 'I am to be found most days at 29 Henrietta St, Covent Garden [the offices of 'T.P.'s Weekly', on which Jackson held an editorial position] - but it is safer to make an appointment.'

Autograph Letter Signed [to the publishers Messrs George Routledge & Sons].

Author: 
Beatrice Harraden (1864-1936), British novelist and suffragette [George Routledge & Sons, Ltd.]
Publication details: 
29 July [no year]; on letterhead 3, Fitzjohn's Mansions, Netherall Gardens, Hampstead, N.W. [London]
£100.00

Two pages, 12mo. Good, with minor effects of damp. Text clear and entire. Twenty-five lines. Harraden has found an old acquaintance, Mrs Charles Routledge ('the widow of the son of Colonel Robert Warne Routledge'), in 'very distressing circumstances; she had been very ill from blood poisoning in the leg, had been in hospital, & in the work house'. Mrs Routledge has 'done her very best [...] to fight an adverse fate', working hard 'as a house keeper, maid of all work, servant of lodging house'.

Sketchbook

Author: 
Nicolas Bentley
Publication details: 
No date.
£850.00

Cartoonist and illustrator. Folio, boards nearly detached, 84 pages of drawings, including nudes, male torsos, heads, some comic. "No.4" written on first page. (Item purchased some years ago from the booksellers who bought Bentley's library - Waterfields).) An early sketchbook from the artist who illustrated T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats"

Stationery and Bookselling. Special Spring Number. A select Directory to the Leading Firms dealing in Paper, Commercial and Fancy Stationery, Books, Fine Art Publications, Photographs [...] with specially written articles [....].

Author: 
J. S. Morriss, editor [Stationery and Bookselling; trade directory; British publishing; printing; bookselling]
Publication details: 
April, 1890. London: Published by J. G. Smith & Co., 165, Queen Victoria St., E.C.
£56.00

4to (27.5 x 21.5 cm), 140 pp on shiny art paper. In original light-green red and black printed wraps. Tight, on lightly-aged paper, a little dog-eared at back. In worn and chipped wraps. Filled with striking and attractive engraved illustrations and advertisements. Illustrations include stock cabinets, book presses, printing presses, ledgers, notebooks, artists' materials, magnifying glasses. Long obituary of Edward Lloyd of Lloyd's News.

Catalogue of a Valuable Collection of Book-Plates, (Ex-Libris.)

Author: 
Puttick and Simpson, London auctioneers [auction catalogues; bookplates; ex-libris]
Publication details: 
London, 1897. Sale the 28th, January, at two o'clock precisely, At the Rooms of PUTTICK & SIMPSON, 47, Leicester Square. [Printed by S. and J. Brawn, 13, Gate Street, High Holborn, W.C.]
£125.00

8vo: 21 pp. Stitched and unbound. Tastefully printed on good watermarked laid paper. Aged, and with the covers grubby. Priced and named to lot 113, and with a few of the other lots priced in pencil. A slip, dimensions 2.5 x 15.5 cm, has been cut away from the beginning of the sale (pp.3-4), resulting in the loss of the entries for three lots (12, 13 and 14). Scarce, with no copy listed on COPAC or WorldCat.

The London Booksellers - Etymology of the Term Yankey. Being an Excerpt from The Yankee in London. First published in 1809.

Author: 
Royall Tyler [John Kristensen; Firefly Press; Kallistos Press]
Publication details: 
[Somerville, Massachusetts.] Kallistos Press. 1984. [Printed at Firefly Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by John Kristense.]
£150.00

Limited to 200 copies and signed by the printer John Kristense. 8vo: [13] + [1] pages. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Good, with minor wear at head. The colophon reads 'The London Booksellers - Etymology of the Term Yankey was hand set in English Monotype Baskerville and printed on Curtis Ragston paper in an edition of 200 copies at Firefly Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by [signed 'John Kristense'] who sends it as a 1983-84 holiday greeting to his friends. The Society of Printers in particular is thanked for honoring him in 1983 with membership.

Catalogue of Engraved Portraits, comprising many rare Mezzotints, Stipple and Line Engravings by Faber, Simon, J. Smith, S. W. Reynolds, Edelinck, Marshall, Gaywood, Wierix, De Pass, Faithorne, Houbraken, Bartolozzi and others. [complete in 4 parts]

Author: 
Myers & Rogers, London booksellers, printseller and autograph dealers
Publication details: 
Parts I to III (numbered 15 to 17) published in 1901; Part IV (no. 18, supplement) published in 1902. Parts I and II 'On Sale by Myers & Rogers, 44, Booksellers' Row, Strand, London, W.C.' Parts III and IV by the same firm from 59 High Holborn.
£300.00

8vo: continuously pagined 1-187, followed by three pages of publishers' advertisements. A tight copy, in good condition, with the four parts (each of which retains its original orange printed wraps) bound together in contemporary brown cloth gilt and floral endpapers. An invaluable reference work, containing a total of 14293 items, each priced and with a brief description. Example: '4428 Hobart (Mrs.) Lady Buckinghamshire, caricature by Newton, Mrs. H. (very corpulent) driving over the weighing machine in front of a Weigh House, sinks down in the pit, folio, 1797, 4s'.

Victorian type-facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?] of 'Joe Miller's Jests Or, The Wits Vade-Mecum. [...] now set forth and published by his lamentable Friend and former Companion, Elijah Jenkins, Esq. [i.e. John Mottley]

Author: 
Joe Miller's Jests; 'Elijah Jenkins' [John Mottley] [H. J. Bellars; John Camden Hotten]
Publication details: 
Title-page reads 'London: Printed and Sold by T. READ, in Dogwell-Court, White-Fryars, Fleet-Street, MDCCXXXIX. [1739]', but in fact a type facsimile [by John Camden Hotten or H. J. Bellars?], circa 1861].
£45.00

8vo: [ii] + 70 pp. Internally sound and tight, on lightly-aged paper. In worn contemporary burgundy quarter-binding with heavily-worn spine, recased with repair to rear endpapers. COPAC lists an entry for a copy in Cambridge University Library described as 'Probably the Lithographic facsimile by H.J. Bellars. London, reprinted 1861'.

The Unhappy Princesses. In two Parts. Containing First, The Secret History of Queen Anne Bullen. [...] Secondly, The History of the Lady Jane Grey. [...] Adorn'd with Pictures.

Author: 
R. B.' [i.e. 'Robert Burton', pseudonym of Nathaniel Crouch (c.1640-1725?), London printer and bookseller]
Publication details: 
London: Printed for N. Crouch, at the Bell against Grocers-Alley, in the Poultry, near Cheapside. 1710.
£250.00

12mo: 159 + [9] pp. (Publisher's catalogue of 'Books Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell against Grocers-Alley in the Poultrey near Cheapside.' begins at foot of p.159 and continues for nine unpaginated pages, ending 'FINIS.') Lacks frontispiece. Woodcuts on pp.26, 61 and 121. In worn original calf binding. No endpapers. Aged and with worn fore-edge. Separate title to second part on p.89 ('The Secret History of the Lady Jane Gray', 'London: Printed for Nath. Crouch. 1710.') Scarce: COPAC only lists reproductions, with the note: 'R.B.

Broadsheet, with woodcut, entitled 'A Copy of a Letter written by Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.'

Author: 
James Catnach (1792-1841), London broadsheet printer [Catnach Press]
Publication details: 
J. Catnach, Printer, 2 & 3, Monmouth-Court, 7 Dials.'
£85.00

Printed on a sheet of wove paper roughly 37 x 24 cm. Fair, on lightly aged and stained paper, with slight wear to extremities. Illustration, roughly 9 cm square, shows Christ, a crown of thorns above his head and a crucifix behind him, blessing an orb which he holds in his hand. Attractively printed in two columns divided by decorative rule, with ornament beneath title. Text in small type, divided into sections titled 'A Letter of Jesus Christ', 'Christ's Cures and Miracles', 'King Agbarus's Letter to Christ', 'Our Saviour's Answer' and 'Lentulus's Epistle to the Senate of Rome'.

Secretarial Letter, Signed by Murray ('A. H. Hallam Murray'), to C. J. Holdsworth, responding to a criticism of an entry in one of 'Murray's Guides'.

Author: 
Alexander Henry Hallam Murray (1854-1934), son of the London publisher John Murray the third (1808-1892) [50 Albemarle Street; Murray's Guides]
Publication details: 
28 January 1898; on letterhead of 50 Albemarle Street.
£28.00

12mo, 2 pp. 12 lines of text. Very good on lightly-aged paper. He has received Holdsworth's letter, and is 'sorry to hear that you found our description of the Royal Hotel not justified'. Note will be taken of Holdsworth's 'experiences' and 'whatever alterations are necessary' will be made, 'when next we reprint the Index & Directory of the Handbook'. 'Notes such as [Holdsworth's] are most acceptable.'

Autograph Letter Signed ('R Seeley') to his business partner Service.

Author: 
Richmond Seeley, son of and successor to Robert Benton Seeley (1798-1886), London publisher [F. Stanley Service; Seeley, Service & Co.; 'Clive Holland' [Charles James Hankinson] (1866-1959)]
Publication details: 
5 February 1908; Holmbury, Epsom.
£85.00

12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. Good: lightly aged and with a slight bloom at the foot. Text clear and complete. Written to a business partner, and providing an insight into the everyday workings of the Edwardian book trade. The beginning of the letter appears to be a response to suggestions by Service of authors to write a book on Holland. Begins 'Dear Mr. Service, | We cannot employ Clive Holland again until he has at least put his "Egypt" into a shape in which we can venture to reprint it.

Autograph Letter Signed to Sonnenschein.

Author: 
James Samuelson, editor of 'Subjects of the Day' [George Routledge & Sons Limited; William Swan Sonnenschein [Stallybrass] (1855-1934), publisher]
Publication details: 
22 September 1890; Trevenna, Grosvenor Road, on letterhead of 'GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED | "SUBJECTS OF THE DAY." | (EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.)'
£30.00

8vo, 1 p. Good, on lightly-aged paper. In response to a 'kind note', Samuelson informs Sonnenschein that 'the next number of our Review, which will appear shortly, is to deal with the Irish question'. He has 'a very copious list of publications' and although he would have welcomed Sonnenschein's assistance, he hardly thinks it is worth his while at the present time to trouble himself over the matter, 'for reasons which I will explain to you some day'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Robt. Bell Wheler.') to Nichols.

Author: 
Robert Bell Wheler (1785-1857), antiquary [John Gough Nichols (1806-1873), antiquary and printer; Camden Society]
Publication details: 
14 August 1850; Stratford upon Avon.
£45.00

12mo, 1 page. Bifolium with address ('John Gough Nichols Esqre. | 25 Parliament Street | London') on reverse of second leaf. Grey paper. Fourteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good: lightly aged and with one corner slightly creased. Begins 'I have much pleasure in again committing to your care Torkingtons M.S. Pilgrimage with my Transcript, & shall be gratified by seeing it embodied in a Vol: of the Camden Society Publications. How soon will the Volume be issued?' In a postscript enquires after a copy of Sir George Chetwynd's 'Catalogue of Provincial Coins'.

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